"We were holed up for seven days. We voted every day. It was 5-4 every day for seven days. And every day the vote for No. 1 was for a different guy than the day before," E.J. McGuire, the head of Central Scouting said in a telephone interview, after making Tyler Seguin the top ranked player on the final list Wednesday.

"On the last day I said 'Listen. You're the general manager. Right now you're safe. You have a contract with some time on it. But project yourself to three or four years from now. You're in the owner's office. And he says 'Why did you pick this guy over that guy?' It's either a new contract or a pink slip."

The vote was 5-4 again. But it was the final vote. And it was 5-4 Tyler Seguin over Taylor Hall.

That vote was taken before the Ontario Hockey League series in which Hall and his Windsor Spitfires dominated Seguin's Plymouth Whalers and made Seguin virtually disappear.

While scouts everywhere have been saying there's not much to separate the two, fans were most certainly expecting Hall to maintain his mid-season No. 1 ranking by Central Scouting.

General manager Steve Tambellini of the Edmonton Oilers has to be happy should he win next week's lottery and get to pick first in the draft, to see Seguin ranked No. 1.

All he needed was the Oilers disenchanted fan base to be silently chanting 'Hall! Hall! Hall!' like they were not so silently with 'Doan! Doan! Doan!' when instead of picking Shane Doan they chose Steve Kelly at the 1989 draft in Edmonton.

It takes a lot of pressure off if they get the first pick.

"I think so, too," McGuire told the Sun.

"But we didn't do it for that reason."

In the end McGuire said they chose centre over left wing.

"It basically came down to the old aspect of building your team up the middle. Hall is exciting and he's a game-breaker. He has a lot of flash. He drives to the net and he can finish. But we chose the right shot centre around whom you could build your team," he said.

In an official statement made in conjunction with the list of top North American skaters in a draft which is expected to be dominated by North American players, McGuire put it another way.

"They're equal. But we can't sit on the fence. We went with the right shot centre."

Oilers head scout Stu McGregor was surprised to hear him say that. That's where many people feel the Oilers are at if they pick first. Their biggest need is a No. 1 centre to build a team around and has been throughout Ales Hemsky's entire career here.

But Seguin is a tough pick publicly when the other guy has the better stats, is a proven winner, a Memorial Cup champion and MVP. And he's a big game player in the World Juniors when the other guy didn't even get selected to the squad.

"Central Scouting's choices are always very interesting. They can make you rethink and have another look at where you have a player positioned. In many ways Central Scouting is a little bit more pure because they deal with only what you see on the ice and have no part of a team's particular need," said McGregor.

McGregor, as head scout, makes the final pick.

While there's been the suggestion that this is one year you might want to lose the lottery and select second because the two players are so close that it takes you off the hook, McGregor says he'll be celebrating Tuesday if the Oilers, with their 48.2% odds, win the first pick.

"They are both pretty special guys. And either way having the unbelievable experience our scouting staff has had this year to dig very deep in evaluating these two players is only going to make us better. I'd love to have the opportunity to make that pick."

McGregor said there's plenty to debate about but McGuire had the right idea about projecting down the road.

"We've all seen players who had great breakout years but don't make the same impact down the road. The difference is what that player is going to become four, five and six years from now."